But what a party it would have been! A celebration of a global athletics victory with a demonstration of monumental human feats.

Shock and Blah on Daley Plaza

The uber-branding was on the minds of race organizers.

“We were certainly tracking it,” said Marianne Caponi, public relations director for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. “It wasn’t something that was planned specifically, but if we had gotten the Games we would have pulled something together.”

Grant Park would have been decked out in Olympic regalia. Throngs of spectators would have sported their orange Chicago 2016 t-shirts. And spectators from around the world would have tuned in to watch runners traverse a course that in just seven years would have held global implications.

Photos: Olympic Shock

Unfortunately, Chicago lost its bid for the games in dramatic fashion, and what ever ideas the city had for partying were quickly scrapped.

But just because there won’t be dual duty partying, doesn’t mean that the marathon is ho-hum.

More than 45,000 marathon runners and 1.5 million spectators will turn out Sunday for a grueling test of endurance.